


First snow

by that_cake



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/M, I might make a part two depending on how well this does, I wrote this for a friend and thought I would share, Mild Cursing, Not Beta Read, abuse death and killing are mentioned, female y/n, tried to make it like a Cat/Reid dynamic, y/n is the unsub
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28823091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/that_cake/pseuds/that_cake
Summary: Y/n was just a normal veterinary technician; she gets up every morning, goes to work, and then goes back home. Well, at least that's what everyone else thinks.(Y/n is an unsub and gets caught by the team)
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader
Kudos: 12





	First snow

I stare at the computer as I write the final notes onto the reports from the day. An ear infection, a broken tooth, a few spays and neuters, nothing special. The life of a vet tech isn’t anything too interesting anyway. I didn’t take the job because of the excitement or the money, although it doesn’t pay much anyway, I took it solely for my love of animals. Ever since I was a little kid I’ve connected to animals on a level I just couldn’t reach with other people. I sigh as I’m about to log off of the computer for the day, but something catches my eye. There’s a case from the day that was handled by another tech with a flag on it labeled “POSSIBLE ABUSE”. If there is one thing in this word that confuses me more than people, it’s how some people can hurt animals.

I open the file and the images I’m met with disturb me to my core. The dog on the screen looks so scared and it’s body is mangled with cuts and scrapes. How…how can someone do such a cruel thing to such a poor innocent creature?

“They’re all just like that no good bastard” I say under my breath as my mind goes back to that night.

_“Daddy please no!” I scream as my father raises the barrel bat over Sunny’s small frame._

_“You gotta learn to be strong on your own! You’re too attached to this damn dog!” He starts to beat her just the same as he beats me, except he doesn’t stop when she goes limp._

In that moment all I could do was sit back and watch as he beat her, my Sunny, the only being in this world that ever really loved me. I had loved that dog more than anything in this world and when she had been taken away I was left empty. That night I snuck into the bedroom while Dad was asleep in his chair and grabbed the old hunting rifle. That night I tried to kill him, and I would have if I hadn’t missed. I couldn’t do the right thing back then, so I do it now to make up for what I couldn’t do back then. All these people decide that they’re going to take the life and well-being of these animals in their hands and do horrible things with it, so why can’t I help them learn their lesson? I quickly write down the address of the person on a note pad and then shut down the computer. I clock out and get in my car to drive home. I just have to stop at home to get some things and then I’ll go there. I rub my hands together as the weather was unusually cold for the time of year and then drive off, the excitement growing inside of me.

Today I feel on top of the world. I always feel better after nights like last night, just something about it that refreshes me in a way. The phone in the back office rings and I rush to pick it up.

“Y/n, there’s someone here to see you.” It’s the receptionist, she sounds worried.

“Oh? Is something wrong?”

“Oh no, I just need you to come out to the front real quick to check on some medication for a patient.” Her tone on the phone makes me a little skeptical for a moment, but I have to do what I have to do to keep this job.

“Okay, I’ll be right out.”

As I open the door I’m greeted with about four guns pointed in my face all at the same time. 

“Y/n y/l/n, put your arms on your head and get down on the ground!” A voice comes from somewhere.

“Oh _fuck_ ,” just as I’m saying it I turn my head to see two other people with guns behind me. I’m caught, I lost. The cops finally caught up to me and now I have to play the game until I get an out. I kneel on the ground as someone from behind me puts handcuffs on me.

“You’re under arrest for the murder of seven people,” I hear the person say.

I go through the whole shebang, getting read the rights, being thrown in the back of a cop car, until I’m finally handcuffed to a table in what I can only assume is an interrogation room. I wait for what seems like forever as they probably discuss how to interrogate me. I try not to let my confusion show. How had they figured it out? I had destroyed any evidence that I had left behind, I had covered up all my tracks, I had done everything I could and yet I’m still sat here is this dumbass room in this run down police office. It’s really pissing me off.

“Come on already! You can’t keep me in here forever!” I yell. These assholes are making me inpatient. Just then the door opens.

I’m met with a face that’s nothing like what I expected to see.

“Hello y/n I’m Dr. Spencer Reid with the FBI.” He sounds like a mix between a professor and an actual police officer. I looked him over once. He was well dressed enough but didn’t wear a suit and tie like I had expected FBI agents would. Despite his well put together outfit his eyes looked tired and his hair was a mess. I can’t say he’s exactly “my type” since I don’t really have one, but he is handsome. If I’m going to be locked up and questioned I might as well have some fun.

“Hey there pretty boy,” I wink. He doesn’t look very amused as he takes his seat in front of me. He places a file on the table between us. “You want to tell me why I’m here?”

“We have a paper trail that leads right to you, and enough physical evidence to put you away for a long time.” He said stone faced.

“I’m not talking until you take these off of me,” I lift up my hands and jingle the handcuffs around. “Come on, where are your manners? Isn’t it the least you can do with how I’ve been treated so far?”

He sighs and looks back at the mirror on the wall behind us for a moment, then turns and unlocks my handcuffs. As he hovers over me I lean in to get a better look, “Wow you’re even better looking up close haha.” He just continues what he’s doing and once he’s finished goes back to his side of the table and sits back down. He opens up the folder and shows me what’s in it.

“You use your work computer to find abused animal’s owners, go there and kill them, then you take the animals and drop them off outside of animals shelters.”

“Woah there pretty boy, don’t just go throwing around accusations now. Up until a few hours ago I was just a regular girl working at a veterinary clinic, and now you’re trying to tell me I’m some sort of serial killer?” I try to sound confused.

“Yes,” he places a picture of my victim from last night on the table in front of me, “you shot this man last night.”

“No, I was at home all night last night, just ask my neighbor.” I snap back at him.

“You shot this man in the hands, then knees, then chest, and then the head, and then you took his dog and dropped it off at the local animal shelter.”

I decide to keep my mouth shut, he had gotten the order wrong which is killing me, but if I say anything about it, that would be just like a confession. We sit in silence for a few minutes as I just stare at the table trying to figure out what to do next. I look up to find him staring at me.

“What?” I say.

“There’s something I don’t quite get,” he’s dropped the stone-faced act and is now talking like an actual human.

“And what would that be?”

“Why kill only single men? Why never women or families?”

“Well, aren’t you a curious one?” I laughed a little, “How about this, I’ll tell you something if you tell me something? Deal?”

He pondered for a moment and then nodded in agreement.

“Okay so I guess I gotta answer your question, although I don’t know how accurate to the truth I’ll be since I didn’t kill those people.” I pause wondering how I’m going to put this, “Simply put, I guess the murderer doesn’t like tearing families apart. As to why they don’t kill women, I can only guess it’s because they haven’t had the need to kill one yet.”

“What do you mean by the _need_ to kill one?” 

“Slow down, you don’t get two questions at once, it’s my turn now.” I say playfully. He sighs, but I can see he’s relaxed from the start of the conversation. “Now, what part of the FBI are you in? You aren’t like the FBI guys I imagined I’d see when I overheard the FBI was here.”

“I’m with the behavioral analysis unit, I’m a profiler.”

“Oh? You profiled me did you? Hmm I’d be interesting to see what you think about me doctor.” He seemed to disregard my comments.

“Why are you a vet tech?”

“Well that’s a pretty easy one to answer,” I laughed. “I’ve always loved animals; I’d even say I like them more than people. I wanted to be able to help them, this was the most direct was to do that.”

“That’s actually a really nice reason.” 

“ _Wow_ , I’m not as heartless as you think I am.” I say sarcastically. He laughs and it surprises me, he actually has a pretty cute laugh. We talk for a little while longer just asking some general questions back and forth, I learn a few things about him and his life, and I correct a few mistakes on the papers he has on me. Seems like they didn’t even know anything about me up until I started college either, which I guess I can be grateful for. Dad always had a thing for living off the grid.

“Well you see, your paperwork also has that wrong,” I laugh, “are you sure that technical analyst of yours is as good as you say she is?”

“Hey, I’ll have you know she’s as good as they come.” He smiles and it hits me. I haven’t really connected to another person in my whole life, I just kept to myself as to not let anyone hurt me. But Spencer struck something inside of me, he made me want to let down my guard for once. For the first time in forever I felt an odd connection to a person. We sat in silence for a moment, I’m trying to figure out what to say.

“You aren’t like the others, y’know that Spencer?” He looks a little confused, “I always liked animals more than anything in this world and humans just kind of took a back seat to them; I just never saw the appeal.” I pause and look at him, “there’s something about you that’s different.”

“I could say the same about you y/n” There’s an odd feeling in the air as we sit there staring at each other. The door opens and we both look as a man walks in.  
“Dr. Reid that’s enough, I can take it from here, your team needs you.” He looks almost disappointed as he gets up. Before he leaves I place my hand over his on the table and lean into his space. 

We lock eyes for a moment. “You had the order wrong,” I whisper to him.

“What?” He questions.

“You had the order wrong in your little file” I say louder this time, “It’s knees and then hands, don’t get it wrong next time”

He picks up the folder from the table as he walks to the door, “okay y/n, I’ll get it right next time.” He smiles as he leaves. It didn’t feel too bad to confess, now I just have to find a way to get out of here. The officer ends up taking me out of the room into a holding cell for the night until I can get sent off to wherever I go to next. Yeah, not gonna happen, I’m getting the hell out of here somehow. 

I end up being able to snag some keys from a passing guard, although I think I broke my arm in the attempt. I decide that I’m going to wait until the next shift change to make a run for it so I’m just going to sit around in my cell for the time being. I hear the door open and continue to stare up at the ceiling because it’s probably just another officer checking up on me. I hear the footsteps come up to my cell and stop, and then they don’t move like the normally would. I look over to see Spencer standing there.

“Couldn’t get enough of me ey pretty boy?”

He chuckles, “Guess not.” We both just stare at each other.

“Y’know, sometimes I wish I could have just been normal. With the mom and dad in the little house and the white picket fence. That would have been nice.” He folds his arms as he leans against the wall next to the bars. “I didn’t _choose_ to be this way; this is just the way life chose to make me.” I get up and walk over to the bars, “and I’ve adapted to it.”

“You wanted to know what I thought of you as a profiler right?” I nod. “You were hurt my someone and you let that hurt fester and grow until it become hatred and rage. You killed innocent people as a way to release some of your anger, but it never made it fully go away.” He pauses, “Who was it that hurt you?”

I sighed, “My dad.” I try to keep my composure as I say it, but just thinking about him makes me want to punch a wall.

He looks sorry for me, can’t say I hate that look, “What did he do?”

I look down to the floor trying to hold in whatever emotion is trying to come out, “He killed her, he killed the only thing that I ever loved. He killed my Sunny.” I wipe my eyes of the tears that had apparently started to form there, “But it made me stronger, I learned to adapt. I swore to punish the others who ever did something like that to another animal.” All he does is nod.

“I should get back to my team,” he says as he starts to walk away.

“Goodbye Spencer,” I know it’ll be our last time talking to each other, and I’m a little saddened by that, but I have to get out of here.

“Goodbye y/n.” As he closes the door I look to the clock on the wall and realize there is 2 minutes until the shift change. I discreetly unlock the cell door and open it looking around to make sure the officers are all scrambling around outside. Once I see I’m in the clear I close the cell door behind me and make my way to the back exit in the building. Once I’m outside I run and I keep running until I’m at a strip mall. I guess the best thing to do now would be to hot-wire a car, can’t say that skill was completely useless now. 

Once I’m in the car and have it running I pull out of the strip mall, and start to drive, not in any particular direction either. I can’t go back to my old life, and I don’t even know how I would start a new one. I had a backup plan for if I was ever caught, but I have no way of obtaining my folder of forged documents from back home. Not to mention the police are probably circulating my picture everywhere by now. There’s only one option left, but I need to do one last thing before I can go, before I can give up. I have to do the one thing I couldn’t do back then; I start to drive in the direction of the old farmhouse.

It took about an hour to get to the farmhouse, the police have to know I’m gone by now, but hopefully they won’t be able to figure out where I am. I find Dad’s old car parked out in front of the house, it irks me to see how nothing has changed over the years. I go to the barn, maybe there will be something useful in there. I rummage around for a while and find an old axe. 

“It’s time to finish this,” I mumble to myself. I walk over to the house, the determination in me rising by the second.

I knock on the door and no one answers. I turn the knob and the door slowly swings open. The floorboards creak under my weight as I step into the house. I sneak through the house as the sound of the tv from the living room fills my ears and my stomach fills with a deep feeling of dread. I stop at the entrance to the living room and stare at him just sitting there. I left him in this house to rot, but he still haunts me, so it’s time that I end this.

“Hey dad,” I say. He turns to look at me.

“Well look who came crawling back home. I told you one day you’d be back.” The venom in his voice is palpable.

“You were right, but I’m not back to stay dad. I’m here to end this, I’m here to do what I should have done all those years ago.” Suddenly I heard loud sirens in the distance and they were getting closer by the second. “Come here old man,” I said as I grabbed him and held the axe to his throat. “You’re coming with me.” I dragged him through the house out the front door just as the police were arriving.

“Stay back all of you, I’ll kill him, I swear I will!” I yell at the officers that have gathered around.

“Y/n!” I look in the direction of the voice to see Spencer standing there looking something between scared and cautious holding his gun up at me like everyone else. 

“I can’t keep being that little girl with all the hurt inside of her, I have to get rid of it, I have to get rid of _him_.”

“Y/n you don’t have to do this, I know that he hurt you and that you want to make him pay, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You’re stronger now, remember? You’re better than that.”

I look at him and the desperation in his eyes as he tries to talk me out of what I already know I have to do. “I’m sorry Spencer.” I say as I go to cut my dad’s throat with the axe. Suddenly I hear a shot fired off. My hand and eyes immediately go to my chest where I was shot. I look back up to see that it was Spencer who shot me, before I fall to the ground. I hear footsteps coming my way as the world slowly becomes more and more hazy around me.

“Y/n, can you hear me?” It’s Spencer, he sounds upset, although I might be hearing wrong, everything sounds a little fuzzy. He’s holding me in his arms so I’m not just lying on the ground, why is he so kind? 

I realize it’s started to snow, and Spencer’s hair is starting to fill with snowflakes. “It’s the first snow,” I say, “it’s so beautiful.” I try holding my hand out to catch a snowflake.

“Y/n stay still you need to not move.”

I let out a painful laugh, “I guess that technical analyst isn’t as bad as I thought she was, she was able to find this old shack,” I say trying to smile. He returns it with his own pained smile. “Thank you Spencer.”

“For what?” He asks.

“You helped me see the good in at least one person.” I place my hand on his cheek, it leaves behind a streak of my blood. “I’d say that’s something worth thanking you for.” Each breath I take is harder than the last. I can feel my body slowly growing colder in his arms.

“Stay with me y/n, just a little bit longer,” he sounds desperate.

My eyes are heavy and I can’t feel anything at this point, I just feel cold, the only warmth coming from Spencer’s arms wrapped around me. I guess it’s time, “Goodbye Spencer.”

I close my eyes as I hear him say “Goodbye y/n” as I drift off into darkness.

**Author's Note:**

> I made this for a friend and decided to post it, hope you all enjoyed! I might make a part two depending on how well this does (and if my friend keeps bothering me to make it lol).


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